PRESS RELEASE INTERVIEW ARTIST INFORMATION PRINTS ALL ARTISTS
ARAM BARTHOLL |
Greetings from Germany!
22 DECEMBER 2024 — ONGOING
Greetings from Germany!
2024
HD two-channel video (colour, sound), MP4 (AI generated with Premie Pro)
0 min 41 sec
1920 x 1080px
Edition of 3 + 1 AP
(ABar001.24)
PRESS RELEASE
ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY is pleased to present Greetings From Germany! (2024), a single-channel video by German artist Aram Bartholl, a poignant critique of police activities on the streets of Berlin, underscoring the potential of art to confront and illuminate complex truths. This presentation is part of Illuminated: Moving Image Perspectives, the gallery digital programme, which will take place over the course of a year, and offer unique insights into new media artists using film, video animation, as well as their latest technological explorations, including blockchain and advanced technologies such as AI.
Aram Bartholl’s, video Greetings from Germany! (2024), uses the technology of AI as a space of opportunities to explore disturbing policies around modern urban policing. The ironic title belies a serious underlying message about police activity on the streets of Berlin — a reminder that art can be a powerful tool to consider truth more fully.
For this work Bartholl chose a single image from a recording of an anti-war demonstration in Berlin where police were involved. Using this single frame, Greetings from Germany! presents six alternative realities generated by different AI video systems. The unfolding events are unsettling, playing with notions of certainty. It is difficult to know precisely what is happening as figures morph into one another. Lines are blurred between police, demonstrators and bystanders and precisely what is happening – one figure appears to dance. As the video is shot from the point of view of the audience, (reminiscent of smartphone streaming), the work gives the impression of the viewer being a witness to events unfolding. This creates a sense of immediacy, yet questions of veracity soon arise. The use of a variety of video generators shows how each of these commercial AI models give a slightly different angle to the ambiguous narrative. Shockingly, however, in the final shot, the ambiguity disappears as the viewer is confronted by a distressing clip of found footage of the incident.
This work is about holding a mirror to society, making visible aspects of public policy that might be easily overlooked or disregarded. By using one of the major tools of contemporary society – AI, Bartholl here encourages the viewer to look again, reconsider definitions of what constitutes the real, and catalyse conversations around critical issues.
Over a 12-month period, Illuminated: Moving Image Perspectives will present a new artist online each week, offering a dynamic platform for contemporary moving image practices (weekly updates running from 17 November 2024 to 16 November 2025). To date, the featured artists include Jonas Lund, Sara Sadik, Oliver Laric, Lauren Lee McCarthy, and Nicolas Sassoon, with forthcoming contributions from Tamiko Thiel and Che-Yu Hsu.
The online streams will be augmented by physical presentations of digital artworks in a private home setting at the gallery founder’s loft in Shoreditch. These installations will be accompanied by regular, invitation-only dinners and carefully curated exclusive viewings for art professionals, fostering deeper connections between artists, collectors, journalists, and museum curators.
Subsequently the artworks will be featured in a group exhibition at ANNKA KULTYS PHYGITAL. This VR group show will open end of May 2025 to coincide with London Gallery Weekend, highlighting contributions from 26 artists as part of this year-long initiative, then the second part of the VR with the other 26 artists in November 2025
As part of this initiative, prints of video stills by the artists will be made available for purchase on the gallery’s website. Furthermore, the gallery is pleased to announce a monthly giveaway, offering subscribers the opportunity to win a selected artist print. Each giveaway will be introduced in the monthly Full Moon newsletter, with the winner announced in the subsequent edition (next scheduled for 13 January 2025).
For all sales enquiries, please contact Annka Kultys at
+44 74 555 61 887 (WhatsApp) or at annka@annkakultys.com (email)
INTERVIEW
What software did you use to make the work? Did you choose it for any particular reason
For this video work I used six different AI video platforms to generate a series of short video clips. They all starting with the same image from which each AI model extrapolates its own version of what could happen next in that moment. It is kind of funny that the AI platforms, which scraped the whole web to train their models themselves put a watermark on their videos. You can find their websites online easily and generate something. I wonder how long they will last.
Can you walk us through your creative process for your work?
There has been a lot of AI-related art produced in recent years. Often these works have a strong visual attraction or come in a very specific aesthetic. I haven’t worked with AI myself yet but felt it was a good opportunity to let AI dream up alternatives from current reality. To generate the videos I extracted a single image from a social media clip of a demonstration in Berlin last summer (2024). A police men is approaching a protester from behind. What will happen next?
What are the themes or messages you hope to convey through your work?
It is very interesting how unique the results from the different platforms are. Each model has their own bias or special glitch aesthetic. Some seem to perform better but are not necessarily pleasing on an aesthetic level. Sometimes the demonstrator becomes a policemen or vice versa. From dance performance to total melt of the two bodies everything seems possible. It is fun to watch creativity of the models with their mostly peaceful resolutions of the situation compared to the harsh reality of the original social media clip.
If you could choose one technological invention from the past or future, what would it be and why?
Coaxial Warp Drive. The Coaxial Drive manipulates a standard warp field to fold space, generating immense power that surpasses traditional Warp Drives. This piece of technology defies the conventional limitations of space-time. It is a marvel of engineering opened new possibilities in the exploration of the galaxy.
ARTIST INFORMATION
Aram Bartholl was born in 1972 in Bremen, Germany and now lives and works in Berlin, Germany.